If the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone was a bold statement, a declaration that BlackBerry and its new operating system were ready to quit messing around and really compete against modern phones, the Q10 is the company's love letter to its most loyal customers. The Z10 and its big, rectangular touchscreen look like the post-iPhone devices that we've gotten used to; the Q10, with its hardware keyboard and square screen, looks much like the BlackBerrys of a decade ago.

But the Q10 isn't some half-measure like the BlackBerry Bold or Curve, stopgap hardware running an operating system in desperate need of an overhaul. It's a proper BlackBerry 10 handset, running the same OS and applications as its taller, slimmer cousin. So what can it do that the Z10 doesn't, and vice versa? How do the physical keyboard and smaller screen change the BlackBerry 10 experience? And does the Q10 strike a satisfying balance between old and new, or does it simply feel outdated?

Power adapter, case, headphones, extra battery with charging cradle (retail phones may or may not come with all accessories)

If you're familiar with the BlackBerry Bold or BlackBerry Curve, the BlackBerry Q10 will seem familiar. It looks like a Bold and the Z10 had a baby, with the Z10 having mostly recessive genes. The Q10 is a bit shorter and a bit thicker than most all-touchscreen phones, and its front face is split by its 3.1-inch, 720×720 touchscreen and 35-key backlit keyboard.

We'll be spending most of this review with the keyboard and screen rather than BlackBerry 10 itself, which is substantially the same as it was when we originally reviewed it, but BlackBerry 10.1 does make using the Q10 subtly different. You'll find that some UI elements that were white by default on the Z10 are now black by default, a move apparently made to conserve battery life. PIN-to-PIN messaging, which allows you to send messages to a particular BlackBerry handset, is also available in the BlackBerry Hub, and an HDR shooting mode (which we'll revisit later) has been added to the camera app. All of these changes (among others) will make it to the Z10 when its BlackBerry 10.1 update is out, but depending on when the Q10 is available they might be exclusive to it for a while.

Returning to the Q10: it's very slightly heavier than the Z10 (0.31 pounds compared to 0.30) and is shorter but also wider and thicker (0.41 inches thick, compared to 0.35 inches). The result is a phone that feels smaller than most, and most people should be able to reach the entire keyboard and most of the screen with one thumb while holding the phone one-handed.

The Q10 (top) is a bit thicker than the Z10, but shares its button and port layout. The power button and headphone jack are on the top.

Andrew Cunningham

The micro USB and micro HDMI ports on the phone's left side.

Andrew Cunningham

The volume rocker and play/pause/voice control button on the right.

Andrew Cunningham

The phone's single speaker is on the bottom.

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The rounded, smooth back of the Q10 (right) compared to the pitted, rubbery back of the Z10.

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The back of the phone slides off to reveal the battery, SIM, and micro SD card slot.

Andrew Cunningham

Our review unit came with a case, a charger, a headset, a spare battery pack and charger, and some documentation.

Andrew Cunningham

The back of the phone is slightly rounded and uses a smooth (but still somewhat grippy) plastic or carbon fiber that slides down to reveal the battery, SIM slot, and micro SD slot. It's different from the pitted, rubbery, peel-off back of the Z10, but the effect is much the same: it's easy to grip and less likely to slide around in your hand than something made of glass (the Nexus 4) or smooth slippery plastic (most Samsung phones).

The port and button layout roughly matches that of the Z10: a power button and headphone jack are on the top of the phone, the micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports are on the left, a single (serviceable but tinny) speaker is on the bottom, and the volume rocker and play/pause/voice control button are on the right side. Overall, it's an extremely solid-feeling phone, and there's no undue flexing or creaking. It looks and feels like a premium product.

The keyboard you’ve been waiting for

Most BlackBerry Q10 buyers will be getting the phone for its 35-key physical keyboard, which a small (if vocal) minority continue to prefer over touch-based keyboards. This keyboard is designed to be thumb-friendly—the keys on the left and right sides of the keyboard are sloped slightly differently to be more comfortable to your left and right thumbs. The keys are satisfying and clicky and their backlight is nice and even. They're very firm as well.

The keys are identical to those on phones like the Bold and the Curve, but the layout is slightly different. The rows of keys on these older phones were arranged in a downward arc, but the rows on the Q10 are straight; BlackBerry says that the "frets" between the rows have been made slightly thicker to help avoid missed key presses. I couldn't type quite as quickly on the physical keyboard as I can on a touch keyboard, but even compared to the Z10's generally excellent touch keyboard, I made fewer typing errors on the Q10.

Enlarge/ The Z10's software keyboard actually obscures a bit more of the screen area than the Q10's, but the software keyboard can be dismissed to regain that screen space.

Andrew Cunningham

Accuracy isn't the only thing to consider when comparing a touch keyboard to a physical one, though; physical keyboards lack some of the versatility of BlackBerry 10's soft keyboard. Gone is the ability to quickly swipe through the standard, numerical, and symbol keyboards; gone is the handy swipe-to-complete predictive text; and gone is the ability to change characters on the keyboard if you're typing in a different language (or if you prefer a non-QWERTY layout). Some actions are the same on both keyboards (holding down a key for a second to make a capital letter, holding it down for longer to bring up a list of extended characters), but the similarities end there.

Enlarge/ Some keyboard shortcuts are labeled in BlackBerry 10's menus.

To make up for some of the missing features, the Q10 supports some keyboard shortcuts. Starting to type from the home screen will automatically invoke the phone's search feature, so you can type things like "BBM Matt" or "SMS Flo" to quickly and easily begin doing those things. You can press T to go to the top of a page or document you're scrolling in, B to go to the bottom, or the spacebar to scroll down the page more gradually. There is also a small truckload of application-specific shortcuts, the full list of which we've uploaded in PDF form for your perusal. As with any keyboard shortcuts, they take some time to feel natural, but once they do it's difficult to live without them.

The Q10 comes with an alternate predictive typing mechanism, which is enabled from the settings panel. Begin typing and a selection of up to three words (or, occasionally, punctuation marks) will appear above the keyboard, and you can tap one to select it. This feature is similar to the way the stock Jelly Bean keyboard operates, among others. The phone will also offer you some suggested words as you type, making it theoretically possible to string entire sentences together without tapping the keyboard more than a few times. As in the Z10's software keyboard, the predictive typing is designed to become more accurate as time passes.

One thing the keyboard doesn't really change is BB10's reliance on its many touchscreen gestures—swipe up to return to the home screen, swipe to the right to get to the message-aggregating BlackBerry Hub, swipe to the left to get to your iOS-and-Android-like grid of application icons, and so on. You'll need the touchscreen for all of this, as well as things like text selection. The various scroll wheels and nubs used by BlackBerrys past are gone—and they're not likely to return.

84 Reader Comments

I'm wondering why they didn't go with a slider keyboard like the Torch used; then they could have had a larger screen on the phone without sacrificing the physical keyboard. I had a Torch issued to me when I worked for GE, and if that form factor could run a more modern phone OS I would use it in a heartbeat!

Probably because the added mechanical complexity could complicate the design and supply chain. Though, more to the point, the Q10 looks like what a salesguy or CxO envisions when s/he thinks "BlackBerry."

They're selling this thing off-contract at the same price as an iPhone 5 and more than the Galaxy S4, Lumia 920 or the HTC One even though it has a tiny screen and slower internals. But it has a keyboard! That's typical Blackberry wishful thinking at work again.

An important detail: in my experience with a Nokia N8, a LED screen with minimum brightness is painful, but an AMOLED display with minimum brightness is bearable, and, unless you expose it to direct sunlight, even enjoyable. Keep that in mind while evaluating battery life.

It's interesting that they chose to make this device shorter than the Z10. That, and the wider top bezel, reduce the space for the screen. If the Q10 was the same length as the Z10, it looks like the display could be at least 900 pixels tall (rather than 720), which would make quite a difference.

Personally I prefer sliders. You get the best of both worlds in terms of a physical keyboard plus a full size screen. The cost is thickness, but phones have gotten so thin that I really don't think that is worth worrying about anymore.

They're selling this thing off-contract at the same price as an iPhone 5 and more than the Galaxy S4, Lumia 920 or the HTC One even though it has a tiny screen and slower internals. But it has a keyboard! That's typical Blackberry wishful thinking at work again.

Let me say this: I would never buy this phone. However, it's a phone that is likely to have a devout fanbase for whom the physical keyboard is an absolute requirement, as are the Blackberry services. For them, yes, buying the phone for the same price as the phones you listed makes sense, as they put value on the things you don't. It's not "wishful thinking" so much as it is prudent business decisions.

I have little hope that this will sell in volume. But it will fit a niche that there are fewer and fewer entries in. Smaller, but devoted, audiences get charged premium prices, even if people like yourself are dismissive of the hardware.

Missing from the review is how the screen size impacts the native phone apps. People who buy this are not worried about Angry Birds performance, hearing the email app is optimized for Z10 is more relevant.

Missing from the review is how the screen size impacts the native phone apps. People who buy this are not worried about Angry Birds performance, hearing the email app is optimized for Z10 is more relevant.

In short: "same as the Z10, but shorter." Most native apps are optimized for portrait mode, so there's a lot more scrolling.

I'm wondering why they didn't go with a slider keyboard like the Torch used; then they could have had a larger screen on the phone without sacrificing the physical keyboard. I had a Torch issued to me when I worked for GE, and if that form factor could run a more modern phone OS I would use it in a heartbeat!

I think that the problem with sliders is thickness... it seems like all sliders are way to chunky, and that is something that is obvious in your pocket.

Personally, I have always felt that the real sweet spot is something like this phone but with a full-size screen like on the Z10, so it is really long, but flat and thin. I don't care if something is long, I want it to be thin and not too wide. Just take this keyboard and tack it on to the end of the Z10, and I would be good to go.

I have little hope that this will sell in volume. But it will fit a niche that there are fewer and fewer entries in. Smaller, but devoted, audiences get charged premium prices, even if people like yourself are dismissive of the hardware.

I'm not dismissive of the hardware or the OS, it's just that I find the pricing absurd. I find any kind of physical keyboard to be much better for productivity than typing on glass but the market for work-only phones is a lot smaller than for general consumer models. Blackberry were supposed to appeal to loyal users and new ones with the BB10 OS but now they seemed to have priced themselves into a corner. The company can't survive in its current state by selling a handful of units.

I'm wondering why they didn't go with a slider keyboard like the Torch used; then they could have had a larger screen on the phone without sacrificing the physical keyboard. I had a Torch issued to me when I worked for GE, and if that form factor could run a more modern phone OS I would use it in a heartbeat!

I think that the problem with sliders is thickness... it seems like all sliders are way to chunky, and that is something that is obvious in your pocket.

Personally, I have always felt that the real sweet spot is something like this phone but with a full-size screen like on the Z10, so it is really long, but flat and thin. I don't care if something is long, I want it to be thin and not too wide. Just take this keyboard and tack it on to the end of the Z10, and I would be good to go.

The Q10 is 10.35 mm / .41" thick, modern sliders are around 12.5 mm so you are talking about an extra 2-2.5 mm. This you think is too much, but a phone that is 6.5-7" long is ok?

I would have thought their biggest market is the one that has always been their biggest market: corporates giving them to employees to remotely access email. This is the same market that inavriably locks down the handset so that the user can't actually do anything outside of email on it.

Are the corporates going to be worried about anything other than email access and security? Everything else goes out the window.

The various scroll wheels and nubs used by BlackBerrys past are gone—and they're not likely to return.

I'm probably the minority, but I find using touchscreens to scroll text irritating. I loved the old scroll buttons/wheels of yore (now universally replaced with volume buttons). I could continue reading without moving my fingers; the scroll buttons/wheel are right there under my right index finger (or left thumb). Now I have to move my thumb to the screen and block my vision, then time the upwards flick precisely so I don't scroll too much.

Heck, even a D-Pad under the screen is a better experience.

Speaking of volume buttons, is there a way to make the volume buttons in my current Android phone act like up/down buttons? That would be great.

I'm wondering why they didn't go with a slider keyboard like the Torch used; then they could have had a larger screen on the phone without sacrificing the physical keyboard. I had a Torch issued to me when I worked for GE, and if that form factor could run a more modern phone OS I would use it in a heartbeat!

This. If at all.

Blackberry made a very nice phone from 2002 with the Q10. Its not that I have some personal hate against Qwerty, its that its become much less of a requirement with the voice interfaces we're seeing make strides on the other big platforms.

I don't think 800 and 850 are actually separate bands. The only band described as 800 (out of the 3 of them) that doesn't sit entirely inside the frequency range of 850 is band XX, and the only one of the 800 bands that's used is VI (by DoCoMo).

Calling the frequencies 800/850 is the same weirdness as calling AWS 1700/2100 instead of just calling it 1700 properly.

I'm wondering why they didn't go with a slider keyboard like the Torch used; then they could have had a larger screen on the phone without sacrificing the physical keyboard. I had a Torch issued to me when I worked for GE, and if that form factor could run a more modern phone OS I would use it in a heartbeat!

This. And this again. Imagine a Galaxy Note-sized phone with a GOOD physical keyboard. My dream is still a modern interpretation of the Qtek 9000.

About all the "the screen is too small", how does it work when writing text (as normally you have a virtual keyboard reducing the screen size), is it still smaller than the Z10?Maybe for who has often the keyboard open this is not so bad...

" I couldn't type quite as quickly on the physical keyboard as I can on a touch keyboard"

A comment like this precludes you from fairly evaluating this phone for it's target audience. :-)

More seriously, I generally enjoy Andrew's reviews but I do think you would do the phone and your audience a service by adjusting your criteria and emphasis to the product. This one is all about reading and writing text emails, managing calendar and to-dos, and keeping corporate IT security happy. How does it do on those fronts?

" I couldn't type quite as quickly on the physical keyboard as I can on a touch keyboard"

A comment like this precludes you from fairly evaluating this phone for it's target audience. :-)

More seriously, I generally enjoy Andrew's reviews but I do think you would do the phone and your audience a service by adjusting your criteria and emphasis to the product. This one is all about reading and writing text emails, managing calendar and to-dos, and keeping corporate IT security happy. How does it do on those fronts?

How, exactly, does relating one's experience with the software keyboard in BB10 vs the hardware keyboard in BB10, and stating the results of that comparison, preclude someone from "fairly evaluating this phone for it's target audience?"

Is what you meant to say "I prefer hardware keyboards so your opinion, regardless of how well-informed, is not relevant to what I personally want to hear" Because that's what it sounds like. How is it at managing calendars, to-do's and "keeping corporate IT happy"? Oh, about the same as the Z10, considering they run essentially the same software.

This. And this again. Imagine a Galaxy Note-sized phone with a GOOD physical keyboard. My dream is still a modern interpretation of the Qtek 9000.

Bring back the Nokia E90 Communicator or Psion 5mx, there's nothing wrong with combining a huge screen with a good keyboard. A 6" touchscreen phone with stylus and a sliding landscape keyboard would be perfect for both media consumption and work.

I wouldn't buy one of these either, but walking around the office at work and having talked to people when we had a demo Z10 around, a surprisingly large number of people in the building want one for work purpose over the Z10. Those people REALLY like their physical keyboards.

The Q10 is aimed entirely at those people. Considering that Blackberry's customer base at this point has a large percentage of diehard corporate types, giving them what they want is probably not a bad idea.

About all the "the screen is too small", how does it work when writing text (as normally you have a virtual keyboard reducing the screen size), is it still smaller than the Z10?Maybe for who has often the keyboard open this is not so bad...

I was just thinking this. Most of the time on my phone, the touch keyboard is open and it takes up most of the screen. (Some apps are also not sensitive to this and hide whatever I'm trying to reply to, but this is a software problem not a hardware problem.) So for me, the screen being smaller to make room for the keyboard isn't much of an issue. Being able to hide the keyboard to read a web page is cool and all, but touch keyboards are very inaccurate for me and I spend a lot of time backspacing, editing or un-correcting auto-correct.

Would I buy it? I don't know... have to put my hands on it first. I wouldn't buy a slider, though -- they seem like they'd be the best of both worlds but in reality they end up being cumbersome beasts.

"UI elements that were white by default on the Z10 are now black by default, a move apparently made to conserve battery life"

Ummm, how?

Does it use multiple backlight sources?

It's an amoled screen, so there is no back-light (only individuals RGB leds). That means that anything black on the screen uses no power at all (and is really black). Something grey uses half power, something white full power (and is sometimes not really white).

For example, on my phone, the standby screen still displays the time while all the rest is black, lighting only a handfull of pixels.

The various scroll wheels and nubs used by BlackBerrys past are gone—and they're not likely to return.

I'm probably the minority, but I find using touchscreens to scroll text irritating. I loved the old scroll buttons/wheels of yore (now universally replaced with volume buttons). I could continue reading without moving my fingers; the scroll buttons/wheel are right there under my right index finger (or left thumb). Now I have to move my thumb to the screen and block my vision, then time the upwards flick precisely so I don't scroll too much.

Heck, even a D-Pad under the screen is a better experience.

According to the article it does use keyboard shortcuts instead:

Quote:

To make up for some of the missing features, the Q10 supports some keyboard shortcuts... You can press T to go to the top of a page or document you're scrolling in, B to go to the bottom, or the spacebar to scroll down the page more gradually.

>>I do want a physical keyboard; speed is pointless without accuracy.<<

But is does make for good submissions to damnyouautocorrect.com

As an aside, I am one of those vocal minorities that not only loves his BB, but needs a physical keyboard. I have to replace my current BB (now 5 years old and dying) and my options up until this point in time were two:

About all the "the screen is too small", how does it work when writing text (as normally you have a virtual keyboard reducing the screen size), is it still smaller than the Z10?Maybe for who has often the keyboard open this is not so bad...

There's a picture in the review of the Z10 with its keyboard up, and yes, with the keyboard enabled there's actually slightly less space available on the Z10's screen than the Q10's. The difference comes when you're reading, and you can't simply dismiss the keyboard to regain that space.

" I couldn't type quite as quickly on the physical keyboard as I can on a touch keyboard"

A comment like this precludes you from fairly evaluating this phone for it's target audience. :-)

More seriously, I generally enjoy Andrew's reviews but I do think you would do the phone and your audience a service by adjusting your criteria and emphasis to the product. This one is all about reading and writing text emails, managing calendar and to-dos, and keeping corporate IT security happy. How does it do on those fronts?

One does not always choose the reviews to which one is assigned. :-)

For a lot of this, I'd point you toward our BB10 software review, since writing and sending text emails and etc. etc. are the same as they are on the Z10. As in other apps, the differences relate to the keyboard and screen—writing is more accurate (and as you point out, may actually be quicker for many), but reading is more cramped because of the reduced screen real estate. Lots of scrolling for both - you can just fit less on the screen at once.

Joanna Stern (now of ABC Tech, formerly of The Verge) absolutely loves the keyboard, and she seems to be the niche that Blackberry is aiming this device at:

Quote:

I carry around two phones. Along with an iPhone, I lug around a BlackBerry Bold -- which many call a dinosaur -- for one reason and one reason only: the physical keyboard.

While most have moved to briskly typing on a piece of glass, I still love the feel of real keys.

Quote:

It's actually hard for me to write about the keyboard and not completely gush about it – the keys are the right amount of "clicky" and the perfect amount of firmness. It gave me an added level of confidence when typing. In fact, I wrote the first portion of this review on the phone while sitting on a train – it would have taken me twice as long on my iPhone and it would have had twice as many typos.

It's like you guys have never seen a BlackBerry in your life. One of the defining differences between the Curve series and Bold series is the design of the physical keyboard. This one uses Bold style keys. There are pictures floating around of an R10 BB10 device which uses Curve style keys.

For reference Bold keys are large and square(ish) and butt up against each other in a grid. Curve keys are pill or jelly bean shaped islands with a more rounded top. The typing experience is very different between them.